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**Lazy Bastard** · 10-26-2005, 06:08:31 PM

The History of GSHI

Much of the history of the GSHI is in the Secret Room (oh, damn it, it was supposed to be secret...) and a topic in a strange forum in a faraway land, heh...I'll copy and paste some stuff in a sec, but you'll be sorry...my guess is that it'll be pretty huge. Or, I'll just do it now (everyone, feel free to add anything you remember)...

Here's something I played with when I was writing a basic synopsis for the GSHI:

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In early 1999, there was a thriving community centered around a handful of people that created codes to modify video games at the RAM level, via peripheral devices such as the GameShark (tm), Pro Action Replay (tm), and GameBuster (tm). Dubbed 'hackers', these people provided codes to their pseudo-underground society, who depended on them for everything from cheats to the downright bizarre; the means of entertainment that just might get them through the work - or school - week. Infinite lives, unlimited ammo, and the ability to skip levels were just the beginning.

[08.06.99] ? Intrepid GameShark hackers discover a code to access a series of debug rooms in Final Fantasy VII. Screens included.
"Almost two years after the US release of Final Fantasy VII, two GameShark hackers known as RPGod and CzarDragon have discovered a code which allows players to access a previously hidden -- and quite bizarre -- debug room in Final Fantasy VII. From the initial room, one can enter various areas which were presumably originally designed to allow programmers to easily test and debug the game." - Gaming Intelligence Agency

It was imaginative, skillful work like this that opened the door to a world of endless possibility, and the 'Golden Age' of video game hacking. During this period of time, there was a growing number of skilled hackers (many of whom were willing to teach others aspiring to join the ranks). There were a few major sites supporting this hacking movement, hosting collections of codes by game (with a small caption of credit at the bottom per page) and a bulletin board and chat room, but many felt there was a need to give credit where it was due. This remained a problem until two hackers, known to their peers as Lazy Bastard and RPGod, were talking with a group of other hackers on a bulletin board and came up with the idea for a place at which anyone who has created even one code can have a personal page containing that code, for his or her own use, and to refer others to. Upon deciding to pursue this, they began to spread the word about their upcoming Index. People poured in to contribute.

Once the first incarnation of the site was completed and released to the public, support grew, and not just in codes. Through several renovations, relocations, restructuring, and a complete revamp or two, there have been forty-nine hackers, fourteen administrators, a mob of moderators for an even more uncountable mob of bulletin board members, three sage graphic designers, a wild pack of internet coding wizards, and it's anyone's guess at how much more, and there remains an all-star staff of veteran hackers, expert gamers, programmers, graphic designers, and all-around gurus to this minute. After nearly three years of the entanglements of real life hindering this, essentially, hobby of an idea, the head staff members had their dream of making the GSHI a company come true, the required resources, finances, and freedom from previously insurmountable constraints finally falling into place.

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Basically, myself and RPGod were talking in a topic at GSCCC's board (a topic I beleive KE and quite a few other hackers were also a part of) and we both made almost identical posts detailing something similar to what the GSHI is now, about 3 minutes apart...I posted, then noticed his post. So I set about to create this mythical place, heh.

Using FortuneCity free hosting and raw HTML, I began tediously working on adding codes from those who'd agreed to join. I soon realized I was just too fucking lazy to continue with notepad (not to mention the ridiculous time it took), and started using something called Trellix Web to automate the task of coding the site. Trellix was horrible, restrictive, and prone to crashing, but with some flexibility, creativity, and lots of saving, it made the job really easy to do in a tenth the time...which still meant dozens of hours, especially when I decided I liked a design better than a previous one, and had to start over...heh.

As I was creating, I started popping up all over the largest forums of the time, spreading the word that the GSHI (the GS Hackers Index) would soon be finished, and adding that if anyone wanted to have their codes added, they should e-mail me. At the same time, every time I hacked and posted codes (which was quite a bit back then), I added something about the GSHI.

Once I finished and had the grand opening (which almost caused me to miss a plane trip, heh), RPGod and Ace (at that time either War~Nerve or Magus) dropped by, along with the other hackers that had either contributed codes, ideas, or graphics, and the site began to get notice, especially for giving credit, something sites at the time either didn't do, or didn't do well. I took that plane flight with no sleep, and was gone for a month. I don't remember what happened during that month, but I think it was relatively nothing.

When I came back, at some point, probably being lent an idea from the GS School of Hacking, someone recommended we get an EZBoard, and I think Ace went and made us one. I linked to it, and at last we had a board. We started hacking a lot more, and slowly shifted our community from GSCCC to GSHI, eventually only dropping by GSCCC every few days between hacking, posting, and joking around at GSHI.

At that point it gets kind of hazy...I know Munk (TheDonut) came at some point and got us a UBB (which was a great upgrade at the time), and a bunch of other stuff, but I don't remember what happened before that...

I'll copy and paste what I can find from the Room, and maybe that'll help. Also, I'd imagine Liquid, Amy, KE, RPGod, and a few other people could probably help fill in the gaps.

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Heh, this is from the day I dropped HAcKen as an admin (he was just never around), and started writing bios for the admins...notice at the end the original mention of Hexbits, heh.

RPGod - RPGod thought of the same basic idea as yours truly, at the same time as well, and we both posted on the same board, in the same forum, on the same topic, within about 3 minutes of each other, about the same thing: the idea that has become the GSHI. I was pretty surprised to come back and see what seemed to me like a reply to my post, before it, heh. So I e-mailed him about it, I think we threw some ideas around (it WAS like...a long time ago), and I went off and started the project. Another group of hackers basically tried to steal the idea and use it before I did, but I beat them to finishing mine, which was better anyway since the idea was potent in my mind, posted the link, and they gave up, their attempt fizzling into nothingness.

Magus - When Magus first entered the GS world and saw me at the GSCCC UBB, I was a raging hackaholic, pumpin' out codes and posting'em every day like there was no tomorrow. At a time when most people were too scared to e-mail me personally (when they did, they apologized like seven times in the letter for taking up my valuable time, and explained how they knew I was very busy, and then kissed my feet for replying, heh), for fear that I might post angrily at them or something (at that time I was one of the top two or three most powerful people in the scene, which meant my word was law--if I said something, by the next day, thirty people were posting on my side, and probably fifty by the end of the week), Magus just dropped me a line and asked me for hacking advice, said "blah blah blah" about this code, asked a question about this or that, requested something, and kept replying whenever he had a question or something to say. The main thing was that he talked to me like you talk to a regular person, not like I was the god of all things who might smite him down if he bothered me too much. What most people didn't know was that I didn't mind at all to get their e-mails. The only ones I did mind were "how do you hack?" or "I've got a challenge for you" or "why haven't you hacked any codes for this game?". The answers to those questions/replies to that comment are: a) Too broad, ask me how to hack a specific thing b) Don't challenge hackers: it doesn't help, it just pisses them off and insults their intelligence. Hackers are usually highly intelligent people; you don't insult a beautiful girl's looks, do you? c) I either do not have it, think it sucks, or cannot think of anything to hack for it. Give me a request, and I'll work on it if I have the game. </rant> Anyway, Magus is indispensable. He's my graphics designer, the most active UBB admin, the guy who's found new hosting for the UBB every time the bastards kicked us, an active hacker, a resident of a hick town, and basically my right hand man. These first two will inherit the GSHI throne when I leave.

CzarDragon - CzarDragon suddenly returned from oblivion and his absence of about a year from the scene, and posted one day here. Despite how cocky I am, Czar is probably the greatest GS hacker of all time. One day he just mysteriously disappeared, and when he suddenly returned, I was quite surprised. RPGod and Czar were well acquainted (they hacked the FF7 debug room code together), which is probably why Czar came to the GSHI and posted at the old EZBoard in the first place, and Magus...or perhaps RPGod...I don't remember...made him an admin. When I found out about this, I approved of his adminship, welcomed him, and figured that although he probably wouldn't be of much use as an admin, he would be a great attribute to the GSHI as a hacker. I was far from being correct, as he became one of the most important people working at the GSHI BB, and now the UBB. In any case, if you boil it all down, CzarDragon earned his stay before he even came here.

CCV2K and Munky - I'm putting them as one because they were both made admins at the same time for the same reason. CCV and Munk are the reason we have a UBB today. Because they worked so damn hard on something that was for other people, they deserved something more than a crappy "thank you", and becoming GSHI administrators seemed like the only thing good enough. Afterward, CCV2k hired himself as the UBB tester (heheh) and Ubb scheme...tester...and does a damn good job. He's also one of our most active admins, and is the only admin that's ever online at the same time I am, lol. Munky became the UBB hack guy and did everything else to do with installation of the UBB and fixing bugs and the like. Magus quickly learned pretty much everything to do with UBB's, and was the one who installed ours the last two times we moved, I believe, as Munk isn't around very often anymore.

Alucard - Alucard was the joint owner of RPGod's old site, Gamers Revolt, and, obviously, a friend of RPGod's. He came to the board probably because RPGod was able to successfully brainwash him into it (lol), and was quite an active poster. Being that he was RPGod's friend and could most likely be trusted, and that he seemed intelligently reasonable and reasonably intelligent, Magus made him a mod. After a few days, or weeks, perhaps, his usefulness had him promoted to administrator. Now that I think about it, Alucard kinda reminds me of one of those old WWII commanders that started small but, because they kicked so much @$$, became generals by the end of the war.

Well, that's it. Now you know a little more about the history of The GS Hackers Index. Oh yeah, I hired myself about two weeks ago, out of pity. My job is to try and sell our new GSHI cereal,

Hexbits - The only cereal with floating marshmallowy hexadecimal goodness in every mouthful. A new GS hacking screenshot on the back of each box---collect them all! Save 400 proofs of purchase, and we'll make you our newest moderator. Sound fair?
Happy eating...
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I'll just add whatever else I can find, skipping the impertinent stuff:

OK, I removed Czar from the staff list. When (or if) he returns, he can have his admin position back. The same thing goes for Munky. DarkSerge is the newest GSHI admin; everyone welcome him and all that. He seems to kick enough @$$, so I figure he'll do a good job.

Removed another admin today. Damn, I'm just knockin' 'em down like a drunk guy in a semi-truck on a dark road with garbage cans (heheh). Like the others; if he comes back and has the time for adminship still, it's his again.

Well, I finished converting all FAQs to html...damn, that was tedious work. Anyway, now that I'm done with that, I can update regularly again. That's about all that's going on right now, besides some serious restructuring of staff. Oh yeah, and the GSHI UBB will be moving soon. I'm goin' to bed...

[At the time, we were using ProHosting for our forums, and they pissed us off...so we constantly made fun of them, including my tribute to the suckiness of all 15 or so banners they had, heh]

Oh yeah...since DarkSerge is our newest admin, I guess I'll give him a bio, too.

DarkSerge - DS was gone from the scene for a while, and suddenly came back. He hung around the GSHI and the GSCCC for a while, before becoming part of the GSCCC staff. Besides simple posting at the GSHI UBB, we caught each other in irc every few days for a while, and talked about random crap, occasionally helping each other find some useless, but useful, thing, mostly to do with the emu scene. Being that DS is a pretty good hacker, and that I figure he's trustworthy, I decided it'd be cool for him to be part of the GSHI staff. At some point in the whole ordeal, I accidentally gave him adminship. LOL, just kidding. He's been a decisive factor in getting new hosting for the new GSHI UBB, which will be open within a few days, hopefully, and is usually a damn good adviser, when he's not absent-minded from sleep-deprivation...which doesn't matter, because I'm usually about as tired as he is, so I wouldn't notice anyway, heheh. When you're half passing out on your keyboard trying to IM someone in irc, log what you say. You'd be surprised the next morning, LOL.

Those're two images SolFire posted at the board...damn good, eh? Anybody still wonder why he's the newest GD? Didn't think so.
[That was below a sweet image of GSHI, with something to do with the then not overused "All your base are belong to us" thing...]

Oh yeah, in case you didn't notice...the new GSHI UBB is open! Deaper's hosting it, so we're finally free of ProHosting's evil grasp...

Sometime in the near future, myself and King Edgar 0 will probably produce the last and final (heheh) GSHI PSX hacking FAQ (unless one of the other members of the GSHI staff decides to write one). It'll hopefully be so basic that, while it won't cover any methods of hacking at all, anyone with a working knowledge of how to push buttons will be able to use it to hack, heh. But for the moment, I'm a bit tied up, and KE is probably somewhere drunk in an alley...no wait, that's RPGod. I better go get him...
[First mention of the FPSXHFAQ]

Oh yeah, and the GSHI UBB isn't up due to a few probs with Deaper's system. It should be back in a few days. And, although complications have arisen, I do assume I'll have the GSHI on its own server soon. Later, all.

Well, I'm pretty much broke right now, so the GSHI won't see its own domain quite yet. It'll cost $20.00 for a year (not bad, eh?), so if any of you admins have cash just lyin' around that you're not too worried about, let me know. Ahh, well...

KE and myself are working on the Final PSX Hacking FAQ now. Other hackers, such as Liquid, DS, ZoMBiE343, and XKillingAngelX will also hopefully make an appearance. With a lineup like that, something awesome's coming your way in a while...

Well, I'm back from another extreme bout of laziness, coupled with some business, lack of sleep, lack of food and water, and the memory that it was all caused by me...heh. I'll probably hack again soon, the UBB will be up again in a few days, and the new GSHI chat is up and running. Things, once again, are looking awesome. Let us see.
[First mention of GSHI Chat]

OK then...all of that was true except the UBB part. Heh. We're working; we'll see. If you know of a place that'll host a UBB, drop us a line. Oh, and I'm hacking FF7 again...and they said it couldn't be done...bah. Every few weeks I resurface with a bit more; this game isn't quite done being hacked yet.

Now the UBB's up again. I now propose the theory that this is some kind of mind game Deaper is playing with us. Heh.

Well, today's a sad day...DS's leaving the GSHI, and for the most part the scene as I understand. I'll miss him. Ahh, well...

Well, the new vB is up and running. Reg if you feel like it. Nothing new on the FAQ...but I'll say that I'm not the King o' Laziness anymore...heh.
[First reference to KE being lazier than me, heh]

OK, we've gotten some new staff in the past few, so I guess I'll write a few more bios.

Liquid Man - Since...the height of KA's School of Hacking I've known Liquid as a hacking peer. He's been at the GSHI as a PSX hacker longer than anyone outside of staff, and is one of the best GS hackers around. At some point he was modded to run the PSX Hacking forum. I noticed he was one of the longest-running GSHI members ever, and one of the most useful, so I offered him an admin slot, and he accepted. He's been doing a lot of graphics work lately, also.

King Edgar 0 - KE has been around the GSHI since pretty much the beginning. I always intended to offer adminship to him, but never got around to it. During the times I did remember, I decided to hold off as he was busier than even myself with modding at GSCCC, hacking, and life, heh. At some point DS reminded me, and after KE explaining he might not have much time to be around and myself explaining that as long as he contributed every once in a while, it'd be fine, he came aboard. Since that, he's been around more than anyone else, heheh. He's not only a GSHI chat regular, but he's THE GSHI chat regular. He's probably our biggest connection to GSCCC, and is one of our few GBA hackers. And I've known KE longer than I've known Liquid; he was in the scene about two months before I was. He's another of the best around, and his ASM knowledge puts him a cut above most of even the best. He also recently went to the bathroom. OK...just checking if you were reading

TruWizdom - Tru was a mod for like...a really long time, heh. He was one of the most useful mods, so DS suggested we make him like a supermod that can mod all forums. I took it a tenth of a step further and made him an admin, heh. Tru probably answers more questions at the UBB than everyone else put together, which makes him one of the top two or three useful people there. And...he entertains me in chat, heheh.

SephiRon - From the beginning, Ron was really into hacking, and would stop at nothing to get everything he needed and learn from the best. This impressed me, as I see that very rarely in a new guy, so when I got my hands on a spare GSPro, I sent it to him, hoping he'd put it to good use. Soon after, I began adding his codes to the GSHI. He's always been around a lot to help out, but when he set up the Backup Board (which we used for a few weeks, and will keep permanently up as a backup), it was the last straw; he was already...effectively staff - it might as well be official. And so it is. And stuff.
[SephiRon's the reason we have our current hosting, and I believe the person through whom we met watever]

OK, with TheGSHI.net opening, all the Downloads are finally up again, and here're GSHI Battles I and II. Merry three-days-after-my-birthday.
[First mention of thegshi.net, our first domain]

Eh...I guess I've been gone from this room for a while. I'll try to come in every day or so again. I'm working on something rather interesting that should be done...at some point in the future, heh. And the FPSXHFAQ is a little closer to completion, as it passes its one year anniversary of being started

Oh, and if anyone needs to get ahold of me or anything, make sure you do it before July 8 (2003), as I'll be leaving for the SF then, and won't be around for probably quite some time. In any case...I've been doing to some SNES hacking, and I'm working on that...one thing I mentioned before, so I intend to throw out a few more things before I take a relatively long vacation from the scene. But I do intend to return. I'll be back. It'll just be a while, and probably happen at an unexpected time (and very possibly at a time when no one's left to remember me, heh). It's interesting to imagine, in a way. Anyway, that's not for a while. I think I'll do some PSX hacking today. Happy hacking, all. Later.
[First mention of me leaving for Army Special Forces, which really slowed things down at the GSHI for about three years...sorry for the holdup, all]

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I guess that's pretty much it. There are more details in said Room, but that's the gist. Anyone have any additions?

**LiquidManZero** · 10-27-2005, 02:50:14 AM

The History of GSHI

I don't have much at the moment, from being too lazy to go upstairs and find a specific piece of paper... But this is at least something.

http://web.archive.org/web/200110240.../n990806a.html

In case anybody wants the original article, complete with screenshots.

It all started long ago in the early days of the first golden age of hacking... I'd been poking around various GS sites for awhile before GSHI started, and oddly enough Lazy and Edgar were at both of the major ones (though I couldn't give you much idea of when... Except for Edgar's earlier work...) At some point I ran into a mention of this new site somebody had put up, and it turned out to be GSHI. Back then, all there was for forums was an old abused ezBoard, but it was still a much cooler place than GSCCC was, despite having only been around a little while. Thing happened, and so on... Eventually I decided I wanted to have my codes up, but had noticed that it tended to take Lazy awhile to do that, even for a fairly small ammount of codes. At the time, well... I figured I'd give Lazy a break on it and make html pages of the codes myself, in the style of GSHI's pages. Took a lot of work actually, what with how much extra crap was in the Trellix html...
Then more stuff happened... And even more stuff... Some time later, around the middle of August 2002 Lazy started talking about the idea of getting a domain for the site, complete with free hosting. What ended up was, I downloaded a copy of the whole site (which you can actually look at, if you know where it is... heh...) and rewrote most of the html in about a week while taking a couple of classes at the local community college. Totally insane, and still unfinished. Heh... Not that it matters anymore. There's some random details involving me talking to TheDonut in #gshi, and convincing him that it'd be a really great idea to have a php script for storing the codes in. He started one, but after a few months I took over what he'd done. The end result, after more than a year and a half of insane middle of the night coding is what you see today...

Oh, and I found this:
http://web.archive.org/web/200010181...1227/index.htm

**Lazy Bastard** · 10-28-2005, 02:32:29 AM

The History of GSHI

I love looking at old things like that...

**MathUser** · 11-20-2005, 12:32:54 AM

The History of GSHI

I kinda wish I could help add to that secret page, cause uh, I feel me and Ugetab certainly deserve a spot in there. Not to be egotistic but we both have worked quite hard in building gshi up. Myself, mostly in adding other peoples content to our site, and luring in new people. And Ugetab, cause he filled up our code sections with lotsa codes, not to mention the site management tool. That tool has been quite valuable to me in adding peoples content to the site. Oya, I also made alot of codes that I posted on the site, but not near the amount of Uges codes. And I imagine he still gots a load of stuff he has yet to release.

Anyway, yeah, it was definately a interesting read. This site has come along way from what it used to be.

For those wondering. I discovered the site maybe a couple years after Castlevania SOTN was made. Some people at CMGSCCC were making lots of codes for Castlevania SOTN and one of them led me here. They had alot of codes for it that wasn't posted anywhere else so I stuck around to see what was made. Someone here made a code to access the "Programmers Room" which is something many Castlevaniacs have found interesting. I don't think any of them know it was discovered here at this site. Anyway, I discovered how to hack thru printing out many of the gshi faqs and studied them and followed its examples and hacked my first code. With my new skills I hacked the heck out of Castlevania Chronicles, and Castlevania SOTN for PSX. I was still using my internet via WebTV so I was strictly doing PSX hacking. I posted them here, and after that I lost track of GSHI, then rediscovered years later. By then I had a computer with access to emulators and was able to make codes for various systems. Then I was appointed a admin position and started adding my stuff to the site. I made the Genesis section 1000 times larger than what it was. I think I added 700 or more codes, and the section originally only had 2. Anyway, um. I'm still here and have no intentions of leaving, and hope to introduce countless other people to the site and it's archive of interesting and one of a kind codes.

**Lazy Bastard** · 11-20-2005, 01:45:11 AM

The History of GSHI

Cool. I didn't know you were around that long, hiro. Interesting...

**LiquidManZero** · 11-20-2005, 04:04:39 AM

The History of GSHI

Interesting, I didn't know that code was from here...

Speaking of adding things, I ought to go do something now everything's sorted out...

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The History of GSHI

The History of GSHI

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